Great Battles Volume II: Warld War II in Europe by Joe Giorello

Author:Joe Giorello [Giorello, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: World War II, US History, Pearl Harbor, European History
Publisher: Cool Gus Publishing
Published: 2014-12-05T08:00:00+00:00

British Sherman tank of the Eighth Army in the streets of Sicily, July, 1943.

After getting pushed down the slope, however, the Germans counterattacked with mortars, artillery, and machine gun fire. Gavin and his men retreated over the crest of the ridge, where they ran into H Company. These men fixed bayonettes and charged right back over the ridge, hitting the Germans with hand-to-hand combat, killing until the Germans retreated.

Then, just when everyone wanted to rest, here came another German counterattack. This time, with Tiger tanks. Twenty-seven-feet long and weighing about 60 tons, these tanks were armed with an 88mm cannon and two machine guns.

The Allies had nothing to compare.

But Gavin had made sure his drop supplies included some 75mm howitzers. Now he put these artillery guns to good use. As the Tigers crested the ridge to open fire on the Americans, Gavin aimed the Howitzers at the tanks’ underbellies. It slowed the assault. But by 4 p.m., the Tigers were still pushing forward. And now they were only fifty yards from Gavin's command post.

The situation looked grim.

Gavin’s radiomen made contact with the American Naval fleet, stationed off the island’s coast. These ships directed their 150 mm cannons toward the Tigers, forcing the Germans to retreat.

At 7 pm, with Gavin’s forces still holding the ridge, the 45th Infantry division arrived with fifty men and some Sherman tanks. Gavin decided to attack once more.

The Americans held the ridge.

Historian Clay Blair later called this ridge battle "one of the finest, most dogged displays of leadership in all of WWII."

With Gavin’s forces on the high ground above the water, the 1st Division could land on the beachhead without heavy enemy fire.

Gavin would soon become the youngest major general of WWII, at age 37.

On Sicily’s southeastern shore, Patton’s army moved up the coast, then turned east toward the town of Messina, to protect Montgomery’s flank of veteran forces, coming from the northwest.

The Germans, having swallowed Mincemeat, still didn’t have a large force here because Hitler remained convinced the real Allied invasion would be in Greece.

In fact, Hitler didn’t figure out the trick until two weeks later.

And by then, Italy’s fascist government was falling apart from the Allied invasion. Mussolini was deposed (meaning, removed from office) and arrested. The new Italian government opposed Hitler’s Nazis and started talking to the Allies about an armistice, or peace agreement. The day after Mussolini’s arrest, Italian troops began withdrawing from Sicily.

However, Hitler’s forces continued to fight Patton and Montgomery’s armies. The Allies also struggled against Sicily’s rough terrain which the Germans knew like the back of their hands.

On August 17, Patton’s troops finally closed in on the town of Messina, having trapped most of the Germans in this northeast corner of the island. Patton expected a horrendous fight.

But when the Allies pushed into Messina, every German was gone.

Under cover of darkness, the enemy had evacuated about 100,000 soldiers, along with vehicles, supplies, and ammunition. Operation Husky was an Allied victory.

But an expensive one, with more than 23,000 casualties.

And the Italian mainland still lay ahead, where Germany would launch one of the fiercest campaigns of WWII.

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